Ford Motor and Chinese search company — and Uber China investor — Baidu have teamed up to invest $150 million in Silicon Valley's Velodyne LiDAR — a move that will likely become commonplace as the auto and tech industries converge to hasten the development of true self-driving cars.
Velodyne has been working on lidar (Light, Detection and Ranging) technology since 2005, after entering the space from its original business, which was focused on creating premium audio equipment like subwoofers. The transition, which would often be regarded as foolish by some, has clearly worked out for the company, as nearly all automakers agree that lidar will be integral to highly automated "Level 3 Driving."
In this instance, the driving force behind the investment wasn't to develop new tech, but rather to accelerate the cost reduction and scaling of lidar sensors in order to make them more accessible. The company has already had success lowering the cost of its lidar systems from more than $80,000 to about $8,000 today for its latest prototype, and this investment will take things one step further.
"This investment will accelerate the cost reduction and scaling of Velodyne's industry-leading lidar sensors, making them widely accessible and enabling mass deployment of fully autonomous vehicles," said Velodyne founder and CEO David Hall.
All three parties involved in this development are involved in the autonomous vehicle field or each other in some way, shape or form.
For its part, Ford has been testing vehicles in snowy conditions and in the dark on its test tracks in Michigan and Arizona. What's more, Ford has worked with Velodyne for years, and in January, the former announced it was adding 20 Fusion Hybrid autonomous vehicles — all outfitted with the lidar from Velodyne — to its autonomous fleet later this year.
"From the very beginning of our autonomous vehicle program, we saw LiDAR as key enabler due to its sensing capabilities and how it complements radar and cameras," said Raj Nair, Ford Executive Vice President, Product Development and Chief Technical Officer. "Ford has a long-standing relationship with Velodyne and our investment is a clear sign of our commitment to making autonomous vehicles available for consumers around the world."
Meanwhile, Baidu has been testing a fleet of autonomous vehicles in China, and also has a Silicon Valley-based autonomous driving team. In addition, Ford and Baidu teamed up as strategic partners in offering infotainment services to Chinese customers in 2013.
"Baidu is developing autonomous vehicles with the intention to increase passenger safety and reduce traffic congestion and pollution in China," said Jing Wang, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Autonomous Driving Unit of Baidu. "Our investment will accelerate our efforts in autonomous driving with what, in our view, are the best LiDAR sensors available today and advance Velodyne's development of increasingly sophisticated LiDAR sensors."
As the race to achieve full self-driving autonomy rages on, a key factor will be affordable, scalable production of the requisite sensors. As such, it only makes sense that both Ford and Baidu would invest in Velodyne.
Of course, not everyone is entirely sold on the value of using light waves — rather than radio waves — in order to create 3D maps for navigation. One such detractor is Tesla Motors' Elon Musk, who argued that better results can be achieved through a combination of radar and optical cameras. His stance has changed somewhat following the fatal crash earlier this year, though he has yet to suggest he would adopt lidar in future Tesla vehicles.
